Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

These data comprise the British component of a collaborative project across eleven nations, aimed at exploring two main lines of enquiry - the influence of media organisation on the supply of news, and the influence of the external context on the demand for news - in order to understand the conditions that sustain or impede informed citizenship. In the process, this shed light on the different 'diets' of news that countries consume, the influences that drive and deter people from following the news, and the factors that contribute to informed democracy. This was achieved by combining a quantitative content analysis of news provision in each country, with a survey questionnaire fielded to a representative sample of the population (in Great Britain, the sample comprised 1,000 respondents). For the British content analysis component, news material was collected during four non-consecutive weeks in May-June 2010 from two major newspapers ('The Daily Telegraph' and 'The Sun', two major television news programmes (BBC1 'News at Ten' and ITV 'News at Ten') and the second most popular news website, The Guardian.

Further information about the project including links to publications may be found on the ESRC's Media System, Political Context and Informed Citizenship: a Comparative Study award webpage.


Main Topics:

News items were analysed in terms of the topics they covered, the location of news, the sources quoted and the framing provided. The survey questionnaire included a measure of news knowledge as well as information concerning news consumption and key indicators of political culture, such as interest in news, polarisation, trust and political self-efficacy.